Dark Stars: Villains For Hire
by Ihaveabrain
Summary: The aftermath of the events in Transformers Animated has left Lockdown in an unsavory situation. So he enlists a few unlikely companions to help break out his fellow Decepticons from Autobot stronghold. WHAT! Read to find out more.
1. Two and a Half Bots

D_isclaimers: I do not own Transformers. Hasbro probably does._

**Mission 1:** Two and a Half Bots

Lockdown could feel the shift in power turn against him. With the Decepticon leader in captivity and most of his generals in stasis lock, the Autobots would most likely be focusing all their attention on capturing the rest of his faction, or at least make it hard for him to operate as a mercenary slash bounty hunter. Not only that, but most of his high paying clientele were also in the Autobot's hands, and this did not sit well with him.

So he concocted a plan.

Every history of civilizations dictate that we all profit the most from war, and war is what he needed if he wanted to continue getting paid and scrap his bounties of their most prized upgrades, which is why he set up a meeting with another bot who stood to lose a lot of profit from the recent turn of events.

"Hello Swindle."

The black muscle car whirred into life and caught the light brown SUV off guard, causing it to jump back further into the alley.

"What do you think you're doing?" hollered the war merchant. The slick muscle car unfolded before him like a mechanical flower, blossoming into the infamous bounty hunter. He held out a single finger towards his steel lips, gesturing him to keep his voice down.

"Hush, my dear compatriot. The Autobots may be gone for now, but we still need to keep a low profile here."

"Which is why I refused to meet here in the first place!" Swindle whispered angrily.

Lockdown shook his head.

"For now, this is the safest place for a gathering. They wouldn't expect us to be here, in the jurisdiction of our new Autobot heroes. And you seem to be…in distress. I have never seen you like this before…"

Swindle assumed his robot mode and leaned against a street dumpster.

"Well, things haven't been this bad since the Great War. What remains of our great faction is in hiding and nobody is buying a slaggin' weapon! And to think I finally gathered some Elite Guard equipments that I bagged from the Magnus's ship," Swindle recalled bitterly. Then his optics narrowed in suspicion.

"Wait. Did you say…gathering?" he asked.

Lockdown smirked, cocking his chin upwards. Swindle looked up to find a giant techno-organic spider laying in wait above him, dangling by a thread of metallic web.

"So you're the so called 'merchant of death' who's been giving the Autobots so much trouble all those stellar cycles…" hissed the half machine, half organic being.

"And you must be the freak," Swindle spat. The spider shrieked while jumping down, transforming in mid air and pinning Swindle against the pavement.

"How about you try saying that again with your circuits pumped full of organic venom?" she threatened, her spindly legs raised erect before her victim. Then she felt her grip loosen as Lockdown pulled her away from the merchant.

"We're not here to fight each other," he reminded them. "For once, we must stand together without trying to destroy our own peers."

Swindle scoffed. "We're the Decepticons. We were wired to be that way. Well, save for the freak over there."

"Name is Blackarachnia, you vermin."

"Enough!" Lockdown shouted, losing his cool for a moment. He was suddenly reminded of all the reasons why he worked alone all those cycles.

"Look. We may be wired to be treacherous, but we all stand to gain something out of this."

His two comrades looked at one another, sharing a confused look.

"So you keep saying," said Blackarachnia, breaking her eye contact with Swindle. "But what exactly is it that you want us to do?"

The muscle car hybrid grinned menacingly, as if he was waiting for that very question.

"We break out our brethrens from Cybertron."

They all remained silent for what seemed like a thousand stellar cycles. Then Swindle broke out into a hysterical laughter.

"You've completely lost your processor!" he shouted, his demeanor changing to that of blood red anger. "Of all the things- you want us to just march straight into enemy territory and get slagged ourselves?"

Lockdown shook his head. "I wouldn't propose this without a fool proof plan."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Out with it," the spider hybrid demanded.

The mercenary sighed, then took out two mechanical collars out of his trunk and held them out before them.

"Take these," he said.

"What are they for?" Swindle asked. Lockdown tossed the collars into their hands when they wouldn't take it right away.

"I'm going to take you all into my ship. You must wear those collars as to not trigger the new security measures within it."

His new comrades gave him a skeptical look.

"You expect us to wear something that could potentially be booby trapped?" questioned Swindle. The bounty hunter raised an optic brow.

"What would I do that for?"

"Your usual M.O. is to trick your preys and strip them of their upgrades," the merchant stated, very matter-of-factly. Lockdown gave him a cold stare.

"Your name is Swindle, and Blackarachnia suffers from identity crisis. Spark for spark, I'm the most trust-worthy one here. Now I suggest you wear them if you don't want to become another name in the long list of Decepticon casualties."

* * *

Within the hull of the ship, the three newfound comrades gathered in the hold, where Lockdown kept all his prized possessions. But the one that caught their attention was his most recent of acquisitions, which were six Protoform cargos that nestled cozily within the life support chamber that Lockdown built just for them.

"You're…kidding." Blackarachnia whispered in astonishment. "How did you get a hold of them?"

The black-green mercenary smirked.

"Megatron left quite a bit of them on the moon, while he and his cronies were mass producing Omega Supreme. But I could only take a few of them before the Elite goons got there," he answered. "And this is where you come in, Black. I want you to create more techno-organic bots such as yourself and Wasp. We're gonna need some fresh muscles if we're to break into their headquarters."

The spider shuddered noticeably in excitement. Then she caught herself exposed and feigned composure. She coughed and asked the million dollar question.

"Why should I?"

Lockdown didn't miss a beat.

"When we're in Cybertron, we can gather more of these Protoforms for you to experiment with. Doesn't that sound…enticing?"

Blackarachnia quietly gulped.

"You have my full cooperation…for the time being."

Swindle cleared his throat and waved his hands around obnoxiously to get Lockdown's attention.

"Hey, so what's your sales pitch for me?"

Lockdown smiled.

"Imagine what you can do with the war back on schedule and some new equipment lifted from the Autobot stronghold. The things you stole from the Elite Guard ship would pale in comparison."

Swindle involuntarily licked his lips.

"So what can I do?" he asked.

"I'll need you to rig up the new techno-organics-"

"The Predacons," the spider interrupted.

"-the Predacons," Lockdown corrected. "With some weapons, and more importantly, some hardware that'll keep the bots in line…new robots tend to be hard to keep in control, if you know what I mean."

"Loud and clear," the SUV hybrid responded, winking.

"Hold on."

The two male bots turn to face the spider fembot.

"I can't create the Predacons without a new transwarp device."

Lockdown rubbed his lower face plate in contemplation.

"The good Dr. Sumdac probably has one lying about somewhere in his lab. "

The three looked at one another knowingly.

"So our first assignment will be to acquire the transwarp device then," the mercenary announced.

"But it'll have to be a covert operation as to not blow our covers…"

"Ooh, ooh, ooh! Should we not come up with a group name to commemorate our combined efforts?" Swindle shouted, genuinely excited. Blackarachnia shook her head in disgust.

"How childish."

"No, this might actually be a good idea," said Lockdown.

"How's this sound?"

**"Dark Stars" an Ihaveabrain Transformers: Animated fanfiction**

"…sounds like a bad science fiction movie," Swindle murmured, the excitement suddenly gone from his voice.

**_To be continued…_**


	2. Splinter Cell

_Disclaimers: I do not own Transformers. Hasbro probably does._

**Mission 2: **Splinter Cell

"Yo! Check out the pipes on that piece of automobile, Scraps!"

"Holy smokes! Ay yo, honk if ya wanna have a good time wit us!"

The Constructicons tipped their oil drums in celebration, laughing merrily as they continued to harass every slick piece of metal that drove past them.

"Oh, it's good to be back together, ain't it ol' buddy?" asked Mixmaster, nudging his friend with what would be the elbow part of his servo. Scrapper agreed wholeheartedly.

"It's great that we're no longer takin' orders from Dirt Boss OR Megatron. Things are finally lookin' up for us now!"

"Yeah…" Mixmaster winced. "It's too bad that we're still takin' orders from the Autobots though. It's because of them that we're guardin' this building here while they're on vacation!"

Scrapper scratched his helmet.

"Better them than our old employers," he whispered quite sagely, taking another sip of the unleaded.

Lockdown mentally scowled as he surveyed the Sumdac building in his alternate mode. He radioed to the other Dark Stars.

"All I see are these two idiots in front of the entrance. Are you two in position?

Swindle magnified his optics and scanned the perimeter from the rooftop of the building, which stood adjacent to the Sumdac lab.

"We're ready when you are," he answered. Then the merchant gestured to the fembot standing next to the ledge, who transformed into her spider form and began to spin a web across to the target building.

Meanwhile, Lockdown popped his trunk, which carried an oil drum with the Decepticon symbol slapped across its side, the lid slightly ajar. He slowly drove to the front of the building to catch the Constructicons' attention.

Which it certainly did.

"Oh man. That smell! That's the good stuff that Megatron used to get us when we used to work for 'im!"

Both Scrapper and Mixmaster's olfactory sensors completely scrambled their processors, driving them crazy for another taste of the "good stuff" being carried in the back of the black muscle car. As soon as he saw them stand up from their posts, Lockdown burned rubber, blazing through the empty side streets. Scrapper and Mixmaster frantically transformed into their respective vehicle modes and chased him like mindless earth bots.

Swindle made sure they were long gone before he himself transformed into his SUV form. Then he began to drive across the robot-made bridge, stretching from one building to another, his tires pre-coated so it wouldn't stick to the webs. The spider followed suit, making sure no surveillance cameras or bystanders caught their movement.

When they reached the Sumdac rooftop, the SUV transformed back into its robotic form and approached the panels lining the generators. He knelt down and stretched out a single finger that opened at the tip to reveal a screw with an electric current running through it. He began to work on the generators while Blackarachnia stood watch, all eight optics glued to the city.

* * *

Captain Fanzone was rounding up his night patrol in his trusty yellow car, weary but content. There were no longer any Decepticons causing trouble in his city, no Bumblebee to annoy him, and he just recently learned to work the CD player in his car. It made good company for him when he was out alone at night, doing his job.

The side of his lip was slowly curling up into an awkward smile, but in that moment, three vehicles whizzed past him in a frantic chase, making his own car spin out of control. When he finally resumed control of his own automobile, he slammed his fists onto the dashboard in anger.

"What in the world was THAT!" he screamed, asking no one in particular. Then he recognized the two construction vehicles tailing the black car.

"This…is why I hate machines," he muttered, stepping on the gas pedal and turning on his police siren.

Lockdown spotted the captain's car now chasing them with the rear view camera hidden within his back bumper.

"Things will get more complicated if they don't finish soon…"

He radioed his comrades again.

* * *

"Swindle is still working on the generators. You're going to have to buy us another ten cycles or so," Blackarachnia answered. Swindle overheard.

"Five cycles!" he yelled over his shoulder panel, his hands working on the wires. Suddenly, the whole building blinked once and the electricity went out.

"Make that three."

"Three cycles," Blackarachnia reported through her comm.-link. They both approached the elevator shaft, and wrenched the door apart. Blackarachnia took the lead and began her descent by sliding down the ropes. Swindle stretched out his wheels and scaled the shaft on his own.

The two reached their designated floor and wrenched open that elevator opening. The spider looked out to see if anybody was there and hopped out, making sure not to make any noise. She then helped the other robot out of the elevator.

"Alright, we got another two cycles before the backup generator kicks in," Swindle whispered.

"That soon?" the spider exclaimed, slightly angry that he didn't inform her right away.

"Don't worry," he said. "We just need to reach the lab before time runs out. Then from there, I can shut down the backup generator while we steal the transwarp device and make our get away."

"You better be sure. Otherwise, I'm scrapping you right where you stand," Blackarachnia warned. Swindle merely shrugged it off, being used to death threats, both idle and serious.

"Oh cool your fleshy motor, we'll get out of here safe and sound."

Swindle took point as they made their way through the dark corridor, their optics turned to night vision. Within a minute, they located the lab. Swindle scanned the interior of the room to see if anybody was in there.

"Nobody's home. Now all I need to do is short circuit the lock system and-"

He was interrupted by a loud electric shock. Blackarachnia used her energy drainers to destroy the locks on the lab door.

"All right, I guess that works, too. Well, now I'll go in there and work on sabotaging the backup generator while you look for the transwarp device."

The spider stepped in first, taking in the sights.

"Can you imagine? This is where Megatron sat helplessly as the Autobots became heroes of the city," the spider mused.

Swindle followed in with caution, hoping there weren't any security measures that ran on its own power. The male bot then proceeded towards the control panels, rubbing his hands together in glee.

"Now let's see if I can make you sing, baby."

He powered up the machine, using his own Cybertronian generators to jump start it. He then traced the connections down to what appeared to be the backup generator system. He lapped his lips in anticipation, firing off code after code towards it to shut it down completely. But all his efforts came back empty handed.

"What?"

The monitor flashed red with the word 'ERROR'. Then it hit him.

"The backup generator is an independent system that connects itself to the main structure when it's needed. I can't shut it from here."

Blackarachnia looked back, her eyes furrowed in anger.

"Then you'd better shut it down manually."

The male bot shook his head, his expression solemn.

"I'd never make it. The backup generator is apparently located a block away. We've got about twenty nano-kliks before it kicks in."

"But you don't seem alarmed by it," Blackarachnia noted. "What do you have planned?"

The merchant robot smirked.

"You're sharp for an organic. The generator will fire off signals to the building, but I'm going to fire a counter signal from here to cancel it."

Swindle cracked his hand joints and began creating a proxy code that is primarily empty. It only took him five seconds, another five away from the electricity coming back on.

"Now hurry up with your search. I don't know what other measures this generator will use to get through," urged the merchant. Blackarachnia mumbled something inaudible, probably a string of insults, as she continued to look through the shelves.

* * *

Lockdown looked behind him once again to find that the police cars have multiplied. He hopped onto the freeway reluctantly, doing everything he can to keep the Constructicons on his trail, while trying to keep the police away. When he first assigned the roles, he didn't realize that his job would be so difficult. He would make sure to take into account the tenacity of these organics the next time he came up with another plan.

But for now, all he could do was run around while waiting for his team to pull out with the item in question.

"Stop there, buddy! Share some of that oil wit us!" Scrapper yelled behind him.

The black muscle car roared in protest, gunning past the toll booth without paying the fee. The crane crushed the toll booth as it pursued Lockdown, causing mayhem without realizing so.

"What were the Autobots thinking, putting these guys in charge?" the mercenary thought out loud.

The monitor flashed with brilliant colors as Swindle managed to cancel the first wave of signals by firing off his own home brewed counter proxy signals with rhythmic gusto.

"Ha ha! This is a lot more fun than I thought it'd be!" the SUV hybrid shouted ecstatically.

Blackarachnia grumbled. She reached far into the top shelf and felt something. She tip toed and saw a handle protruding from the opposite wall, which she carefully pried open. Inside were boxes marked with childish looking crossbones, which betrayed the connotations such emblems carried.

"Huh. Think I found it," she said, taking out the boxes from their hiding. She opened a few before she found what she was looking for. The transwarp device was damaged, but salvageable. She felt her heart flutter.

"Nice. Okay, Swindle. Wrap up your little game so we can head out."

"Just a second," he said. "I need to stop the second wave to make sure the electricity stays dead for our escape."

The monitors lit up again as the signals fired back and forth from one generator to another. But it was a lot faster than the first wave. Swindle was having a hard time just keeping up.

"Slag! The slaggin' signals are speeding up!"

While Swindle busily slapped away at the keyboard, one stray signal got past his proxies and hit home, which turned the electricity back on within the building.

Swindle looked around as the lab became completely illuminated.

"Oh this isn't good…"

* * *

Lockdown saw the Sumdac labs light up from a distance, as he came towards a bridge.

"What in the matrix is going on there?" he wondered. "Guess it's about time I ditch the tail."

He slammed the breaks, causing the oil drum to jump out of his trunk and into the lake below. Without regards for their own safety, the Constructicons came behind him, transformed and jumped off the bridge towards the stray oil drum.

"We gotta catch it before it hits the water!" Mixmaster shouted with a sense of great urgency.

Needless to say, they both made a terrific splash. Their two helpless bodies were then carried away by the waves towards the Dinobot island despite their complaints. Lockdown transformed into his robot mode and swung over the bridge and hid himself underneath it before the police could come into his sight. He felt the bridge shake subtly as his chasers drove past it. He also heard a disgruntled voice, shouting something about hating machines that was lost among the engine noises.

"I hope those two didn't make a blunder already," Lockdown mumbled to himself. He attempted to make radio contact with them, but the signals would not go through. The building seemed to employ a signal scrambler.

"Slag," he cursed under his breath. He then climbed out of hiding and transformed back into his alternate mode. Without another word, he headed towards their rendezvous point with breakneck speed. On his way though, he saw the lights in Sumdac building go out once again.

"Now what?"

* * *

Blackarachnia was in the process of choking her companion to death when the lab became pitch black.

"That…is that your doing?" she asked, her grip loosening around his neck.

"No. And you do realize that robots can't go offline from simple asphyxiation, right? Anyway, we should probably get out of here before it comes back on again."

The spider slung her partner over her shoulder and made her escape. She shot a web up towards the elevator shaft and ascended towards the rooftop. In the span of five seconds, she was able to sling both of them to safety atop another building, far away from the Sumdac labs.

Then she carried her companion down to the alley, which also happened to be the first meeting place of the Dark Stars, where Lockdown in car mode was waiting for them to arrive.

"So did you get the transwarp device?" he asked. Blackarachnia produced the item from within her back compartment. Lockdown let out a doubtful hum as he saw the sorry state it was in.

"It's a little damaged, but nothing I can't fix," the spider explained. She could almost imagine the frown Lockdown was making under the hood.

"Okay. Then let's go. We shouldn't stick around here any longer than necessary," he ordered.

Swindle transformed into his vehicle mode and was surprised by the shift in weight as the spider straddled over him.

"I carried you here, now you do the same," she told him. Swindle grumbled, started his engine and took the back alleys so as not to be seen with a giant spider on top of him.

"You know, your arachnid form makes for a terrible disguise," Swindle remarked.

Blackarachnia did not answer.

* * *

When they finally reached Lockdown's spaceship still in its cloaking mode, they caught a strange machine loitering beneath it. Lockdown transformed into his robot form and raised his hook weapon, assuming his combat position.

"Who are you and what do you want?" he questioned the intruder, his voice remaining calm.

The cockpit of the said machine opened up to reveal a human face with an appalling grin forever pasted over it.

"Sup noobs! The name is Henry Masterson, but you can call me the Headmaster! And I want to be a part of your sweet group!"

The Dark Stars looked at one another uneasily.

**To be continued…**


	3. Head Case

_Disclaimers: I do not own Transformers. Hasbro probably does._

**Mission 3:** Head Case

"I've heard of you," Blackarachnia started. "You're the one who took Bulkhead for a joy ride…after decapitating him."

"In the flesh!" Masterson yelled, striking a triumphant pose above the giant floating head.

Lockdown lowered his weapon, but not his guard. He stepped forward and turned off the cloaking device, causing his ship to blur back into full visual.

"Leave, human. We have no business with you," he coolly told him, turning his back and walking up the platform that stretched out automatically from the side of the hull, leading him straight up into the ship's bridge.

"Now hold on just a second!" the Headmaster shouted out loud, which seemed to be his default, and perhaps his only volume.

"I think I deserve a little compensation for aiding in your mission over by that super fraud Sumdac's lab!"

Swindle knelt beside the human's floating machinery, coming at eye-level with the pilot.

"So you mean to tell me that it was you who sabotaged the backup generator?" he probed, his optics narrowed to a metal slit. Nobody thought it possible, but the human's grin became even wider.

"Yes! I've been monitoring your guys' movement all day! I figured you'd need all the help you can get. "

"Oh? And what's in it for you, flesh being?"

"Do not entertain the human any further with notions of joining our ranks," Lockdown interfered, visibly irritated.

Swindle cleared his throat and rose to his feet.

"Now, here me out here, Lock. It might not be such a bad idea to have this organic around. He happens to be one of the top scientists on this planet, and his invention could prove useful in our plan," he reasoned.

"And come on, it's not like adding _another_ organic to the group will hurt our team dynamics-"

Before he could finish, Swindle felt a boulder bounce off his head unit, to which Blackarachnia would claim she had no part in.

"Aside from that last notion, I agree with him," the techno-arachnid chimed in. "Having him around should speed up the preparations."

Lockdown turned to face his comrades, locking his gaze onto their optic sensors, searching for a reason to object. Then reluctantly, he reached inside his trunk and produced a familiar metal collar and tossed it towards Masterson.

"Fit this on to your machine, so it won't trigger the security system in my ship. Your first duty is going to be helping Blackarachnia fix the transwarp device. Are you familiar with the technology?"

The human cackled maniacally.

"Of course! I've been boning up on Cybertronian physics and engineering ever since I've been cast out of my world's scientific circles!" he replied.

"I see. One thing though," Lockdown continued cautiously. "What exactly do you stand to gain from all this?" he asked.

For once, Henry wasn't laughing like a loon. He had what could best be described as a scorn pasted flimsily over his usually grinning face.

"Are you kidding me? You come from a planet full of robots and you ask me why I'd want to go there?"

* * *

And so the Dark Stars began their individual preparations.

Blackarachnia and the Headmaster set up a miniature lab within the hold, where they both worked rigorously on the new transwarp device. In the meantime, Swindle pulled up his inventory from the pocket trans-dimensional gate within his subspace compartment and gathered weapons and equipments to retro fit both his crew and the would-be new Predacons. Lockdown remained mostly in his cabin, going over his plans and rethinking certain measures to include their new recruit in the midst. There were many challenges ahead of them and he could not afford any missteps.

"A newly revived Ultra Magnus, the Elite Guards, and the Omega Supreme…this isn't going to be easy," he murmured to himself.

Suddenly his monitor came to life with Swindle's mug plastered over the screen.

"What is it?" Lockdown asked.

"The organics are mostly done fixing the device, but they're having trouble powering it up," he answered.

The mercenary grumbled.

"What are our options?"

"Well," Swindle scratched his helmet. "We're going to need an All Spark fragment."

"And where exactly would we find one? The All Spark was all used up in the previous earth battle to neutralize the Omega Supreme duplicates," the black muscle car hybrid recalled.

"Yes, but you forget. The All Spark is condensed energy that does not extinguish. Only…disperse."

Lockdown cocked an optic brow at that statement.

"So, I'm guessing you found a fragment?"

Swindle seemed unnerved.

"The thing is…yes. We were able to locate one," he replied. "On the Dinobot Island."

The interior of the ship became deathly quiet.

"That's another headache we didn't need…" said Lockdown, suddenly feeling the urge to nurse his dome piece. "No other fragments we can pursue?"

Swindle seemed to stare at something off-screen.

"Mmmmm…nope," he answered a moment later.

"Very well," the mercenary sighed. "Tell everyone to gear up. We're going to the Dinobot Island."

* * *

The island in question is beautiful during day light. In recent times, it's seen too many battles and broken down ships head-butting into its features, and yet it remained resilient, retaining all of its beauty with all its cuts and bruises now fashioned into new hills and crevices among the landscape. And despite the prehistoric robot problems that continue to reside within its lush bosoms, it was now already extending its generous hands toward its two new mechanical tenants.

The Constructicons finally washed ashore after the events of the Dark Star operations at the Sumdac lab, their bulking mechanical kibbles all covered in seaweed and other strange stringy marine plant life forms. Scrapper, still holding onto the empty barrel, continued to mumble something about "the good stuff," a behavior which the humans may misinterpret as being "hung over."

Above them, an invisible ship flew, scanning for a stable terrain to land on. Once it spotted a mostly flat hill that overlooked the forest where the Dinobots roamed, the landing gears protruded from the undercarriage of the ship and it slowly descended upon its designated spot. Then the hull opened up, and its occupants came walking out of the entrance.

"Alright, Blackarachnia. Fire up the All park locator and triangulate on the fragment's coordinates," Lockdown commanded.

That did not sit well with the spider femme.

"Care to rephrase that?" she asked, her throaty voice laced with traces of venom.

Lockdown knew how to play this game. From his experience, it was better to appear respectful to fembots so as not to incur their wraths. It never, ever ends well when you do, unless you're Swindle.

"Please," Lockdown added, trying not to let his anger seem apparent. A sly grin spread across the spider mech's face as she turned on the small radar-like device within her servos.

"Alright. We're due south, boys," she said, looking at the blinking dot on the radar.

Lockdown launched the hook from his right servo, which clamped to the side of a cliff, and swung himself across to the other side, carrying Swindle along with him. Blackarachnia followed suit in her organic form, which she felt complimented the scenery, and the Headmaster floated along behind them.

Once they got there, they descended down to the forest, so as not to be seen by Swoop, whom they were fortunate enough to avoid thus far. Then they slipped among the bushes when they heard a loud rumbling, seemingly coming towards their direction. Headmaster pokes his head out just enough to avoid suspicion and looked out to see a giant mechanical t-rex rear its ugly head.

"Me Grimlock smell intruders!" it announced, fire writhing within its jaws. Then it stopped stomping just enough to have an epiphany.

"But…me Grimlock don't SEE intruders!"

Swindle frowned.

"This must be what it feels like to watch your sparklings become self-aware," he whispered. Then he nudged the femme beside him.

"Oh, hey, weren't you all buddy buddy with these prehistoric rust buckets?"

She grimaced.

"Things did not end well. I can't risk trying to amend our relationships right now. We're gonna have to find a way to lose him and advance forward.

"Hey, I got an idea," Swindle whispered. He reached over and grabbed the Headmaster unit and threw it out into the clearing.

"Hey, what was that for!" Masterson hollered.

"Me Grimlock HEAR intruder!" the enlightened Dinobot shouted. Masterson screamed and scrambled to get his robot converted into its head mode to escape, but the t-rex proved too fast for the human as it clamped its powerful jaws down on the machine and carried it away with him, running towards the opposite direction with a cheerful bounce in its steps.

"I have solved our problem AND taught the dinobot about the elusive auditory sensors," the light brown mech announced, taking a bow before his two Decepticon brethren, both of whom shared a skeptical look.

"What? We'll pick him up before we leave the island," the merchant retorted.

"Whatever. The fragment should be outside this clearing, where Grimlock came from," Blackarachnia urged, shaking the radar towards their destination.

The spider took point as they slowly treaded towards the blinking dot on the radar. After clearing brush after brush, she led them straight to a cave opening, looking quite unpleasant as most caves often do. Swindle looked back at Lockdown.

"Do we have to?" he asked in a manner most earthlings would identify as being 'pouty'.

"No other choice. We have to get our hands on that All Spark fragment in order to carry out our plan," the black and green bot answered. Then he switched his optics to night vision and peered within the walls of the cave to inspect. At first glance it seemed to be completely empty, but then he noticed the tiny pebbles shifting around uncontrollably on the cave floor.

"Wait. Something seems to be coming towards our direction," he cautioned. Immediately, they started hearing loud trouncing noises, which made them automatically back away from the cave opening.

Then they finally saw it. A giant robotic triceratops, identified as Snarl, came stampeding towards them, as if it was waiting for them in anticipation. The three Decepticons quickly avoided his charging form and Snarl tore into the giant trees behind them like they were made of papier-mâché. Once they gathered themselves though, they heard the squawking of another Dinobot, Swoop, who was circling above them in a very predatory manner.

"What's going on? I thought the Dinobots were too stupid to pull off a surprise attack?" Swindle complained, cocking his laser cannon forward on impulse.

"They shouldn't be able to-"

Blackarachnia trailed off as she heard a loud, familiar buzzing noise filling the air. After a few seconds, she recognized the sound and shivered.

"Oh no…It's him."

Lockdown and Swindle both looked to their techno organic teammate for an explanation.

"Who is it? Tell me what's going on?" the mercenary demanded.

But before Blackarachnia could even begin to answer his question, it made its appearance in the sky, casting a large shadow above the crew, its giant, translucent wings beating rapidly in order to keep it afloat, its spindly legs rubbing against each other in anticipation.

"Ah…spider bot just couldn't keep away, could she?" it exclaimed excitedly, a sliver of acid protruding from the corner of its hideous insect mouth.

"Hey there, Waspinator..." the spider bot greeted, quite bitterly.

**_To be continued..._**


End file.
